"A fool for a deity"

Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis's stepson, and a producer for the Narnia films, recently gave a radio interview for a New Zealand program, and provided quite a lot of information about the filming of Prince Caspian. (The full interview can be read or heard here.) During the course of the interview he engaged in this exchange:

Rob: Speaking of Jack’s books, we mentioned Mere Christianity before, one of the things that colleague was saying in reading it is that she’s got to re-read paragraphs and re-read chapters because we’re not used to receiving that sort of information today in that sort of a way. We’re much more used to being entertained.

Doug: I think you have a point there, but I think that’s a sad reflection on modern education.

Rob: Agreed. But even for mature Christians, we’re not ready to receive it; we like to be entertained in our messages.

Doug: Yes. But I think that’s completely the wrong way to look at it. I don’t think Christianity is supposed to be a medium of entertainment. I think Christianity is supposed to be something you do, not something you’re entertained by. In fact I take issue with an awful lot of churches who make Christianity as they see it, a performance. They make their worship a performance. The worship of Jesus Christ should be enacted in every minute of every day of our lives; we should be doing Christianity, not just shouting and yelling and talking about it.

Rob: When did you discover that for yourself?

Doug: I discovered that relatively late in life; I was in my forties. My problem has always been, although I believed in God and believed in Jesus, (so does the devil of course, and it doesn’t make him a Christian) I didn’t want to submit my life to the authority of anyone but myself. Therefore in a sense I was worshiping myself, and therefore I had a fool for a deity. But I eventually did come to the realisation that I am not qualified to run a human life, and least of all one as complex as my own. So I handed it over to someone who is, who of course is the person who made it.

Rob: That’s the best thing for all of us to do.

Doug: Of course, of course!

Source: NarniaWeb: Douglas Gresham discusses Prince Caspian